Joddie was born in Patroon, Texas on February 16, 1934, the daughter of Verna and Jack Taylor. They moved to Orange in 1942 where she grew up and graduated from Lutcher Stark High School in 1952. After graduating she worked at DuPont Sabine River Works for 14 years, always speaking fondly of her time and colleagues there. She spent many years at First Baptist Church and the First United Methodist Church where she was a cherished member of the church choirs. She was asked to write a One Hundred Year History of the First Baptist Church, when this milestone was celebrated. She was an avid bridge player and reader and enjoyed her many friends from those groups. She was a member of the Leaf and Pedal Garden Club and devoted her time to the Service League and the Lions Club. Her love of history and Orange motivated her to serve as a docent at the W.H. Stark House and Stark Museum for over 30 years. During their 61 years of marriage, Joddie and Jim loved traveling together, sharing some of those adventures with their nieces and nephew. Years later, she could recall fun, vivid details of these trips taken together, and memories made. In their retirement years, they loved spending time at their lake house at Toledo Bend.
Joddie is preceded in death by her beloved parents, Verna and Oldin Jack Taylor and her devoted husband, James Thompson Pledger, Jr.
She is survived by her sister, Jackie Grooms and her husband Phil. Her memory will also be cherished by her nieces and nephews, Dyanne Kimmel and husband Ike, Debra L. Grooms, and David Taylor Grooms and wife Mindy, all of Houston. She leaves behind great nieces and nephews, Katharine Kimmel, Ross Kimmel and Anna Lea Kimmel, Evan Grooms and wife Amanda, Rachel Grooms and Davis Taylor Grooms as well as her great-great niece and nephew Blakely Grooms and Bennett Grooms. Joanne will be deeply missed by those whose lives she touched with her warmth and kindness.
She loved and was loved in return.